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If you’ve been reluctant to go beyond dabbling in the influencer marketing game thinking it’s just a fad, think again. Influencer marketing campaigns have been around for several years now, and their popularity only continues to grow. This increased focus is in reaction to data that traditional ad campaigns simply aren’t as successful as they once were. 30 percent of internet users predicted to be using ad blockers by the end of 2019. Things haven’t changed much since a 2015 Nielson study revealed the most trusted sources of advertising to be people you know. Branded websites, consumer opinions posted online and editorial content ranked heavily with ads sadly near the bottom of the list. The question successful enterprises are asking themselves is no longer “Should we utilize influencer marketing?” But “How much of our resources will we dedicate to it?” Out of 158 brands surveyed by the ANA, 75 percent utilize influencer marketing, with nearly half of those brands planning to increase funding the following year. Another study by Linqia showed that a majority of marketers plan to spend $25,000 to $100,000 on influencer marketing in 2019. Still hesitant? Consider these four reasons to adjust your influencer marketing approach: Consumer […]

Improve your conversion rates with these simple tips. With how much time people spend on the internet, it has become a must for brands to establish their online presence. Whether you’re a freelancer, a small corporation on the rise, or a small online shop owner, building your brand through your website helps expose your business to a broader audience. However, even having said that, there is more to running a website than just driving traffic to it. But the trick is to convert them – and you can do a lot to improve your conversion rates. I mean, sure, getting tons of traffic can do wonders for your business. But if you think about, having truckloads of web visitors won’t do you much if none of them will take out their wallets and start clicking your “Buy Now” buttons. Here are some tips that can help improve your conversion rates.

This isn’t even a humble brag – it’s a full-on total brag. We were blown away to see the list from TryLately.com and the Lately Blog of the Top 50 Social Media and Marketing Blogs to follow of 2018. The new list includes most of our heroes including Marketing Profs, Convince & Convert, Neil Patel and others. We especially loved what they wrote about us: Wax Marketing When you’re looking for straight-forward, direct advice, so you can get started using practical and actionable marketing gold-dust – look no further than Wax Marketing. Articles are expertly communicated and written in a style that gives you everything you need to know, with stellar insight, backed-up with stats and extra resources. The blog doesn’t mess around with any of the other fluffy stuff, it gives you the facts and helps you to get from A to B. Simple! Fave post: How Data-Driven Facebook Marketing can Future Proof Business Nope, we really try NOT to mess around. Be sure to check out all the great blogs on the list!

This past year, virtual (VR) and augmented (AR) reality technologies had a reasonably slow start, with the cancellation of major projects like Intel’s Project Alloy and the HTC Daydream headset. However, despite drawbacks like these, users and business owners alike still believe that VR has a bright future with a lot of potential. Some brands like Sony even saw their sales exceed expectations when it came to the release of their PlayStation VR headset, with over 3 million sold to date. Plus, by 2020, VR technology is projected to generate more than $20 billion in revenue, and reach a global market size of over $209 billion by 2022. Virtual reality, augmented reality and even mixed reality (MR) experiences are expected to dominate the digital space in the coming years. Why? Because 2D just doesn’t cut it anymore! We all remember the fire that Pokemon Go ignited — and it wasn’t just a frenzy, it was an international sensation. Users were enthralled that they could enter the Pokemon universe and interact with Pokemon in the streets, in their offices, and throughout their cities. And although the fire cooled to a slow ember for that game specifically, users still have a fascination […]

Let’s face it: The success of your marketing campaign relies heavily on how effectively you can get people to do something. Whether it’s to download a guide, join a webinar, or buy a product. Making irresistible CTAs not only encourages user engagement, but it also generates leads, cultivates customer relationships, and increases your website’s conversion rate. And with how internet-savvy the netizens have become, simply creating a site or a landing page that “looks good” just won’t cut it anymore. If you want to influence them to take action on your offers, you need to have a compelling CTA. In this post, we’ll be taking a closer look at how you can create CTAs for your website that visitors can’t ignore. Ready? Let’s get to it.

For B2B companies, particularly those in the services industry, deciding whether to send a gift during the holidays can be a difficult decision. Once the precedent has been set, it’s probably necessary to make it a tradition. Deciding what to give can be a pretty challenging endeavor as well. The following are five tips for giving holiday business gifts: Decide the goal for giving a gift. Is it simply to say “thanks for your business?” Do you see it as an opportunity to reinforce or remind clients (or potential customers) about your company? Sometimes it’s simply because all your competitors provide gifts. Whatever the reason, make sure you know what you want to achieve. Simple thank you items don’t have to be expensive or even that memorable. Something that needs to reinforce the brand should be a bit more carefully designed. Determine the recipients of the gift. Are you providing something for the entire office, or is this a memorable gift for an important buyer? Do you need to order 100 or 1000? Understanding the quantities that you need to deliver can help make that decision, as logistics can be tricky with heavier or fragile items, or those that need […]

When marketing is done, it’s not a matter of randomly coming up with campaigns out of the blue. It requires a strategy that works best when driven by supporting data. The same is true if you intend to do Facebook marketing. Facebook has proven that it has evolved from a mere social networking platform, but to an effective marketing platform as well. This is not only because of the large user base that Facebook has, but also because of the multiple tools that are geared to help make marketing in it more systematic, and more capable of achieving your goals. With that, data-driven Facebook marketing can help you achieve your desired results more efficiently. What is data-driven marketing? Data-driven marketing is making use of relevant data to craft winning marketing strategies. Doing data-driven marketing involves the collection of data from your marketing campaigns, analyzing them, and using them to aid the creation of better campaigns in the future. The data you’ll collect not only involves the demographics of your target market but also how they reacted to your previous campaigns so that you will know how you will design your new marketing campaigns. When done correctly, data-driven marketing can allow […]

At first glance, ephemeral content appears to be yet another buzzworthy trend making rounds throughout the marketing industry. But after making a disparaging remark at PRSA ICON recently, I was schooled by a few marketers who helped me explain why this type of content is so engaging. I’m not alone. ntroduced by Snapchat in 2011 these kinds of stories were met with overwhelming skepticism, as marketers struggled to make sense of this new type of temporarily available content. Traditionally, marketers have always focused on long-lasting, reusable content. Investing valuable resources into a medium that is available only for 24 hours seemed very counter-intuitive to me. However, the growing popularity of social media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram meant that traditional strategies also had to evolve in order to remain effective, and more importantly, relevant. Ephemeral content has become a crucial part of any well-thought-out marketing strategy. What is ephemeral content?

Twitter has been one of the biggest social media platforms for more than half a decade now, which means some of your potential customers are using it. 69 million people in the US are on Twitter, but what’s more interesting is that nearly half use the social network every day. While this is a known fact, very few people know how to use Twitter for marketing a brand, product or service. You may have already realized that shooting out tweets about your business every five minutes brings nothing at the end of the day. But is that a reason to rule out the platform as an impracticable marketing channel? The point with Twitter is to gain influence and grow awareness but it can’t be done by blatantly selling. You may have let your Twitter accounts languish in favor of Instagram or LinkedIn. But it’s well worth your time to dive back in and take another look. In case you’ve forgotten, here is a refresher on how to use Twitter for marketing your brand and grow your influence. Showcase your brand Your profile is the face of your business on Twitter. It is the first thing anyone scrutinizes whenever they bump into […]

PRSA ICON is an appropriate name for what has become a truly iconic event in the world of communications. For the past four years, I’ve had the honor of presenting integrated marketing concepts at the conference. Each year, I’m amazed at how rapidly communicators are embracing integration and using it to their best advantage. This year’s presentation covers a bit of theory along with some pragmatic tips. In this post, I’ll cover some of the points I’ll be making here in Austin today. Here’s a link to the slideshare version of the presentation as well. Some people ask me why learn integration? Frankly, I think communicators need at least an awareness of integrated marketing concepts to remain relevant. Beyond that, using an integrated mindset creates more influence for the communications department within the organization while also providing a broader toolkit for the communicator themselves. Finally, making the jump (which really won’t be a jump soon once the silos start breaking down) into a marketing leadership position can’t be done without a strong knowledge of integrated marketing. Many of us aren’t working at a strategic level yet – so how do we introduce integration into our own work? Basically, integration doesn’t […]